We had a fantastic 90-minute radio show and podcast on the important topic of post traumatic stress disorder. We wanted to share all different perspectives from an expert helping others, combat veterans who have been affected, and a military spouse whose husband is dealing with PTSD. We think that you’ll gain so much information from this show, not only with military members who have been affected by PTSD, but other non-military individuals affected by PTSD as well.

PTSD Expert, D. Nicole Johnson Starr

We started the show with D. Nicole Johnson Starr, a PTSD expert and founder/Executive Director of “The PTSD Retreat“. Her organization, The PTSD Retreat, works with veterans and their families struggling with PTSD, in many different ways: from holding retreats and seminars,to finding counselors, to coaching with EFT, to building awareness of PTSD at public speaking engagements, and working one on one with those deserving extra assistance. The PTSD Retreat does not charge any veterans or their family members for their services. During the show we talked with Nicole about what PTSD is and where it can stem from, signs to look for: withdrawal, anger, shortness of patience and more. She goes through four questions to ask yourself to identify if you may have PTSD. She offers her number as a resource, 801-580-1976 and provides some of her favorite PTSD resources: Vets Prevail with peer-to-peer coaching and other self-help resources.

Veterans Affected by PTSD

We talked with SSgt Nick Lerma, a combat veteran Marine who has deployed to Desert Storm, Somalia, and Iraq. Joining Nick is retired SSgt Jason Inman, Army special forces. These two individuals are part of the organization California Veterans Medicine, which is a cooperative made up of disabled veterans whose main focus is to provide cannibus for medical purposes to disabled veterans at no cost. They operate in an atmosphere that ensures the security of the crop and safeguards against diversion for non-medical purposes under proposition 215 whose “methods of operation and business form fall under the guidelines of the California State Attorney General. Nick recommends the National PTSD Center at Menlo Park, as a life changing experience for him where he received in-patient counseling from other veterans.